Lake Como · postcard-luggage-tag opening

Lake Como

A postcard and a luggage tag arrive; untie the string and step into an Italian villa on the lake.

An old-money lakeside wedding, painted like a golden-hour matte painting. On the stone balustrade of a villa terrace — the lake soft and out of focus behind, wisteria hanging overhead — rests a vintage postcard tied with waxed cord and a kraft luggage tag. Guests untie the bow; the tag drops away, the postcard turns over and its photograph opens into the whole lake: snow-capped Alps fading into haze, a far-shore village, an ochre villa with its terraces and boathouse, cypress and umbrella pine, and living water whose reflections ripple while a varnished mahogany runabout glides past. Inside: a letter on laid paper, a brass plate countdown on the villa wall, a lake-steamer timetable for every day of the weekend, a stone to skip across the water and a dusk farewell with the villa windows lit.